by the Progressive

About the author: The Progressive is a monthly magazine that supports peace, social and economic justice, and civil rights.

We ought to be beating our chests every day. We ought to look in a mirror and get proud and stick out our chests and suck in our bellies and say, "Damn, we're Americans." —General Jay Garner

No one wants to be occupied; no one wants to be colonized; no one wants to see foreign troops patrolling their streets. What most people want, around the world, is to rule themselves and to have enough food and water for their families.

For more than twelve years, the United States helped to decimate Iraq's food supply and pollute its water by insisting that the U.N. impose economic sanctions...